Refugees flow to Greek-Macedonian border despite closure

IDOMENI, Greece — Still more refugees were arriving at the overflowing Idomeni camp on the Greek-Macedonian border Wednesday despite the gates being shut after a European Union-Turkey summit and a decision by countries farther up the Balkan route to allow through only people with valid EU visas.

Heavy rain increased the misery of up to 14,000 people in the waterlogged tent city, which long ago surpassed capacity, leaving thousands to pitch small tents donated by aid groups in surrounding fields and along railway tracks.

Nikos Toskas told state ERT TV Wednesday that Greece can offer “no serious support” to such a large number of people gathered in one spot and that the country can provide better conditions in other camps within 6 to 12 miles of the Idomeni crossing.

Despite the border closure and increasingly poor conditions, dozens of new arrivals were walking the more than 10 miles from a nearby gas station, men, women and children using flimsy colored ponchos to ward off the worst of the rain and humidity to reach Europe’s largest refugee bottleneck.

By the border gate, through which nobody has passed since dawn on Monday, men, women and children slept in a large tent for those who had reached the front of the line to cross, huddled on the ground and covered by gray blankets handed out by the U.N. refugee agency.

A colorful banner made with clothes, blankets and strips of cloth hung on the border fence above coils of razor wire, reading “Made in EU.”